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Originally Posted by Bored&Stroked
Interesting! The unit doesn't match the drawing - at least the rear half. There is no OD on the example shown. Really weird that it had both a torque converter / liquid coupler AND a clutch? I kind of fail to see the point of it - other than I guess it automatically shifted???
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The V8 Times articles are interesting and explain a lot about the Liquimatic. My memory is that all Lincoln Liquimatics had Borg-Warner Overdrive behind the transmission, thus the drawing with overdrive (same unit used that was an option in the normal three speed Lincolns at the same time). All Mercuries used a three speed only version of the Liquimatic, thus the unit on display at the V8 Foundation Museum.
The rest of the auto makers were desperate to develop some kind of automatic shifting transmission after GM brought out the Hydromatic. All sorts of weird setups based on self shifting three speed manual transmissions were offered by many makes (Mercury / Lincoln, Hudson, Packard, etc.). The Liquimatic was simply Ford's last minute half-baked attempt at offering something. The self shifting feature ended up with both second and third selected at the same time, with an over running clutch between the second gear and main shaft of the transmission. This over running clutch failed frequently and doomed the transmission design. A much better explanation can be found in Dave Cole's articles in the V8 Times, available as PDFs on USB from the V8 Club website store.